The battleground maps are due for a balance pass (I do NOT mean a class or ability pass).
Balance vehicle health and make it scale as the average season iLvL increases (example: glaives in Isle of Conquest are made of rice paper so whoever gets hanger wins 95% of the time; similar issues in Wintergrasp, vehicles are too weak defenders win most of the time.)
Fix the broken graveyards that don’t activate properly when the associated objective is controlled. (example: lighthouse graveyard in Gilneas for ally never activates and ally res back at start even when controlled, there are horde examples as well that I can’t think of off the top of my head)
Balance topographical (3D) distance from starting bases to 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. objectives. (Example: Hanger in Isle of Conquest is closer for ally than for horde so ally always get to the flag and the high ground first and horde always arrive later and have to fight off the flag and on the low ground outside a bottleneck)
Balance power of 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. objectives. (Example: Hanger in Isle of Conquest is much more powerful than glaives due to low vehicle health. In Ashran whoever collects fragments and summons their “Giant Dude” first almost always wins with no real alternative objective of competitive power)
In general scale back the power of NPCs or control of NPC bosses to dramatically tilt the balance of power and force actual PvP combat. (Example: Ashran is an example where this is implemented poorly and AV is an example where it is implemented well.)
I play honor BGs equally on both horde and alliance both on a resto druid (lately) for context and see the balance issues very clearly on a daily basis. I will say that I think right now in any case I both win and lose AV equally with both factions and I think that map is as well balanced as it ever has been and is IMO excellent. I have noticed that time of day matters and one faction is consistently better than the other just due to differences in when people from one faction play compared to the other so it’s important to play at all times of day on both factions a lot to really get a feel for these things.
Horde can use Glider from the tower to be faster, Alliance can’t do this. Even better if you have a class that can leap such as vdh as you can leap up the stairs inside the tower.
I get what you mean, but it’s impossible to balance properly unless you basically mirror everything over aesthetics, which includes the interior of towers for example.
Can’t verify this. Besides of the fact that hardly anyone ever summons it (on EU anyway), this NPC is not the sole reason for losing.
While there certainly are issues, I think removing Wintergrasp is a bigger win, and we really need new Epic Battlegrounds.
Unless the starting end of the map is random either by faction or individually, then map changes aren’t required to have fair access to the pros and cons of each starting end. As for class and player advantages each side has access to all of that equally.
Over here in NA in the vast majority of Ashran matches I’m in, big boss wins.
Alliance can bombard the flag point and horde side access to the Hangar plateau on their return from the bombing run. Demolishers also make defending attacks from that side way easier. The gunship has no way to be attacked other than having the flag turned.
Possible fixes would be the speed of demolishers grinding to a halt at a certain incline or placing objects on the ramps up to the plateau that can’t be passed by these vehicles hitboxes. Gunship should get limited ammo per run so you’d have to decide on firing on the gates or securing the access path. Horde flight route would also have to be able to secure more of the access path in that scenario.
Regarding other BGs:
Coldtooth Mine in AV is bugged for more than a decade by now. For no real reason there is a chance that it can’t be captured for the entire duration of the BG.
I personally don’t think IoC can be fixed with a simple change like that. The hangar is way too easy to defend imo, and if things like Glaives would get buffed, so would they be.
Currently I think all Epic Battlegrounds suffer from a snowball effect, but I’m not experienced enough to articulate the why. I know a bunch of people who have thousands of runs under their belt though, including leading pretty much every ebg they join. They would probably be a better candidate to explain those issues than me.
Its strategy vs Zerg rush. 6 people defending are no match for 10 people running point to point to kill everyone with zero organization. Ive always thought being a defender should allow some kind of buff so that in a 2v1 you should stand a chance at least and in a 1v1 its whoever is better. 10 vs 6 should have a chance to hold it until more people arrive rotating defensives correctly. I think alot of people seem to have awareness problems about whos capturing a flag also. Unless you know exactly what the animation looks like and the little swirlies you can see you might not know to “spin the flag”
Of course we also have the problem of Blizzard banning people who are sitting bases and towers playing defense because for some reason that is a thing